Imaginary Friend
' |image= |series= |production= 40275-222 |producer(s)= |story= Jean Louise Matthias Ronald Wilkerson Richard Fliegel |script= Edith Swensen Brannon Braga |director= Gabrielle Beaumont |imdbref=tt0708734 |guests=Noley Thornton as Clara Sutter, Shay Astar as Isabella, Jeff Allin as Daniel Sutter, Brian Bonsall as Alexander Rozhenko, Patti Yasutake as Alyssa Ogawa, Sheila Franklin as Felton, Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan |previous_production=The Perfect Mate |next_production=I Borg |episode=TNG S05E22 |airdate= 4 May 1992 |previous_release=The Perfect Mate |next_release=I Borg |story_date(s)=Stardate 45832.1 |previous_story=The Perfect Mate |next_story=I Borg }} =Summary= A girl named Clara, who just moved to the Enterprise with her father, is lonely, and creates an imaginary friend named Isabella to keep her company. One day, to her surprise, her imaginary friend appears, and seems real (though she makes herself invisible before adults see her). Increasingly, Isabella gets Clara into trouble by leading her into off-limits places, prompting Clara to leave her to go play with others. When Clara returns, Isabella is angry and says, "When the others get here, you can die like everyone else." Clara works up the courage to talk to her father, who then talks to Captain Picard. The crew learns that Isabella is actually an energy-based life form whose home is the nebula outside the ship the ship has been exploring. Picard finds Isabella in the arboretum and talks to her about human parenting. Isabella argues that the adults were cruel to Clara, and Picard explains that rules are for her protection. Isabella is convinced, and allows the ship to pass safely through the nebula. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights # The turbolift allowing Clara and Isabella to travel to Main Engineering - an area which is obviously off limits to children. The Isabella entity may have over-ridden the security protocols. Internet Movie Database Plot holes # When Troi confronts "Isabella" and Clara tells Troi "Isabella's" threatening response, Clara is clearly scared, and Troi, being an empath, should be able to sense Clara's fear. Yet in the next scene, she acts as if Clara was just acting out. Troi may have mistaken the 'fear' as part of Clara's 'game'. Nit Central # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Thursday, April 11, 2002 - 4:35 am: Earlier Clara described Isabella as being tall, but when 'Isabella' appeared she only looked to be a few inches taller than Clara. If I were describing a friend who just a few inches taller than me, I think I would describe them as 'about my size' or 'just a few inches taller.' (Although in the metric system I guess that would be centimeters or decimeters) I don't think I would describe someone as "tall" unless they were maybe 6 or more inches taller. Perhaps 'Isabella' shrank a little when the alien adopted her appearance. # Wouldn't sending probes into an unexplored nebula be a smarter thing to do than just take the ship in? Initial scans of the nebula could have revealed a composition that was detrimental to the efficiency of a probe. # John A. Lang on Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 11:03 am: I'm no child psychologist, but is it REALLY a good idea for kids to have imaginary friends & talk to people that aren't there? Wouldn't it be better for a child to make REAL friends & interact with them...like they did later in the show? kerriem on Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 6:29 pm: I dunno...I had several imaginary friends during the course of my childhood, and I grew up to be...well, somebody who spends a lot of time talking to people I can`t see over the Net, I guess. :) Seriously, John A., most psychologists agree that ìmaginary friends are a normal and healthy part of childhood - unless they seem to be taking the place of real inter-child interaction. Which is sorta the point of this ep…''Bill G on Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 7:51 pm:'' As Long as the child does have some interaction with others they do wind up being usually reasonably well adjusted individuals with little or no threat to society potential. As usual if things are taken too far and all their friends are imaginary they wind up working in the IT deprtment (JOKE) Torque, Son of Keplar on Saturday, June 28, 2008 - 8:59 pm: I don't know, I interact with an imaginary friend named John A. Lang every time I visit this website. # Tim McCree (Tim_m) on Friday, July 17, 2009 - 10:26 pm: What happened to Clara's mother? She is not even mentioned at all (Phil points this out in his book). Couldn't they have added a line in which Sutter says "Ever since my wife died, I've been trying to make life good for Clara." Or words to that effect. It just seems odd that Clara's mother didn't even get one mention. Don F (TNG Moderator) (Dferguson) on Saturday, July 18, 2009 - 7:40 am: I suppose He might not have been married. it is entirely a possibility that he was a single Dad and his Girlfriend didn't want the burden of a kid. I personally know a guy that has 3 little girls by three different girlfriends, in each case they didn't want kids and he took full custody of them. Although I agree with you that it would have been nice to have some dialog to support this either way. =Sources= Category:Episodes Category:The Next Generation